Sizzling summer has worsened severe drought

August 21, 2012

By: Bend Bulletin

Bend Bulletin - “There have been many severe droughts here before,' said Katharine
Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech University. “What’s really unusual,
though, is the heat. When it’s really hot, it actually makes the drought worse, because
the hotter it is, the faster water evaporates, so the drier the soil gets.'

What can make a bad drought even worse? A sizzling summer, the likes of which the
Lower 48 states haven’t seen since record-keeping started in 1895.

...

“There have been many severe droughts here before," said Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric
scientist at Texas Tech University. “What’s really unusual, though, is the heat. When
it’s really hot, it actually makes the drought worse, because the hotter it is, the
faster water evaporates, so the drier the soil gets."